


Karkat: Speak

by muchlessvermillion



Series: Alternian Nights [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sgrub Session, Blood, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-03-11
Packaged: 2018-03-17 10:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3526031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muchlessvermillion/pseuds/muchlessvermillion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat wasn't scared, not really, but he was well aware that what they were doing would put them firmly over the political line of 'harmless, easily crushed rebellious kids' and straight into the world of being branded terrorists. And his face would be plastered all over it. He was ready. The question was; was Alternia ready too?</p>
<p>The revolution is coming; all he has to do is speak for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Karkat: Speak

**Author's Note:**

> Again, a part of the universe I created with captorvatiing that's the premise for her fic But Hope is Not Lost. It's part two of a twelve part series, showing what each of the trolls are up to in a non-SGRUB Alternia.

**Karkat: Speak**

They had never before done anything of this magnitude. Karkat wasn't scared, not really, but he was well aware that what they were doing would put them firmly over the political line of 'harmless, easily crushed rebellious kids' and straight into the world of being branded terrorists. And his face would be plastered all over it. 

He was ready. The question was; was Alternia ready too?

As he stood in the middle of the blank-walled room, anything identifiable stripped away -from wall markings to any telling outside noise that might give a hint of where they were- he felt every atom in his miserable mutated body vibrating. He wondered if this was how his ancestor had felt.

Kanaya manned the camera, because she would be the most comforting thing to see behind it. Sollux and Equius were just beyond her- Sollux was the one hijacking the signal they needed, and Equius was the one scrambling the signal on their own location, so it couldn’t be traced. Nepeta stood with her arm propped up on Equius's broad shoulder, picking dirt from her claws. Tavros had said no. It was a shame. Sollux thought they should try again in a sweep, when they had proved themselves more of a threat, but Karkat was reluctant to ask someone back that hadn't been interested in what they were doing to start with.

Sollux held up three bony fingers, counted down to one, and then pointed at Karkat.

Live. They were live. On husktop screens and media outlet sets across Alternia.

 

He was live.

 

"I represent something beyond the individual. I represent a people that has been given no other choice. The government will call me a terrorist and a monster, but I don't care." He took a deep breath. "My name is Karkat. I am only one face in a movement that spans many, and our members go all across the hemospectrum. We're like you. All of you. And we are tired of being treated like second class citizens under the whims of one singular, totalitarian ruler. Just because something has been a certain way, does not mean it must always be. Trolls deserve their own trollhood! Rights that are deserved and inherent for anyone, yellow or green, brown or blue. Fuchsia or rust.” He paused for emphasis, the way he had rehearsed, endless nights alone in his room, pacing back and forth. “Rights and limitations. One troll should not hold control over the entire species, squashing any measure of innovative difference." He grit his teeth, bared his canines. "One troll does not DESERVE that power. She did not EARN it. She was given it by a genetic mistake. There is no inherent superiority in one blood over another, whatever the lifespan! We all grow and learn the same way, no matter what the propaganda says. Some of you will already be agreeing with me, but I know I would have taken more convincing, myself. I, like some of you must, used to idolize Her Imperial Condescension. I revered her military achievement, her strength. I wanted to support her. It took friends and sweeps and a wakeup call to realize my grubhood dreams were remnants of what society had taught me, and not my own desires. I wanted so badly to be normal that I bought into the shit they were selling me. I was wrong. I see that now. Violence is not the only quality needed in a leader, no matter how efficient and cruel that violence is. An inherently unfair system cannot last forever!" He raised an arm, pumped it high. "Already the empress's forces are trying to find me. Trying to find us." Sollux nodded in confirmation, grinning fangy encouragement from behind his husktop. He had told Karkat once that while he hated the danger of the demonstrations they did, he did like watching him speak. It was a motivating thought. "It's because we scare them." When Karkat smiled like this, it was dangerous. It was feral. "They SHOULD be scared. We are many and getting stronger, and we are going to raise hell. Even if you kill me, more like me will exist. If you choose to join us, you work towards a better, stronger future. A future where you can love whoever you want, caste be damned. Where you can get the job you deserve and worked for, rather than the one they say you're meant to have. Where you can speak freely without fear of death. The empress won't find us today. We have brain as well as brawn, and the people I have protecting me aren't easily beat." He uncaptchalogued his scythes, wincing in advance. He hated this part. He thought it was something he shouldn't have to rely on if his words were enough, a gimmick. But Nepeta had a point- you couldn't beat it for dramatic impact.

Karkat slashed his scythe across the palm of one hand, and held the bloody gash towards the camera. "My name is Karkat." He repeated. "I bleed the blood of The Sufferer. We work towards a better future. Help prove that history doesn't have to repeat itself."

He nodded at Sollux, and screens everywhere went dark.


End file.
